KS3 History: Children's Working Conditions of the Industrial Revolution Source Enquiry

In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to study several written and visual sources about children’s working conditions during Britain’s Industrial Revolution. They will use these sources to form their own opinion about the conditions and challenges that children faced in a variety of jobs such as in the factories, textile mills and mines. Students will then be guided to think about the usefulness and reliability of the sources they have studied.

The lesson includes the following:
Slide 1: Title slide
Slide 2: Lesson learning aims
Slide 3: Lesson Warm Up – A quick quiz and discussion about the rules which impact young people working today
Slide 4: Background information and discussion – What jobs did children do during the Industrial Revolution?
Slide 5: Background information and discussion – Why did so many children work during the Industrial Revolution?
Slide 6: Starter Activity: Source Inference – a visual source about the conditions in mines
Slide 7: Background information – An overview of working conditions and the role of ‘pauper apprentices’.
Slide 8: Background information – An overview of working conditions
Slide 9: 9 sources covering the topic of children’s working conditions
Slide 10: Single source analysis activity and instructions
Slide 11: Printable table for students to complete their analysis
Slide 12: Source Analysis Task 2 Instructions and model examples
Slide 13: Usefulness and reliability help sheet
Slide 14: Follow Up Challenge Questions
Slide 15: Learning Review

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All images used in this lesson are in the public domain and are therefore copyright free at the time of publishing. Images which require attribution have been attributed in the notes section of each slide where the image appears. If you feel any errors have been made, please contact me at raschoolresources@gmail.com in the first instance to resolve any issues. Thank you.